In my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, there was once a restaurant called The Old City Jail. The cuisine was the usual cowboy faire of fat steaks, loaded baked potatoes and greasy onion rings -- but nothing to brag about. The restaurant was actually much better known for its bold claim that the building it occupied was the original Tucson city jail dating back to the mid-1800s. The place certainly looked the part, right down to the cracked plaster walls, wooden beam ceilings and plenty of Old West atmosphere nailed to the walls. Now anyone with an ounce of common sense probably wouldn't believe this story. First, the building was located in a part of the valley that would have been the open desert during the nineteenth century and miles away from the dusty collection of wooden and adobe buildings that was Tucson's very humble beginnings. Second, nineteenth century wood or adobe buildings, often designed on the fly, were hardly conducive to the needs of a modern eatery. Still, plenty of people believed the tale and the management did little to discourage it.

I had my one and only meal at The Old City Jail as a teenager as part of a birthday celebration. During the main course, the manager swaggered over and engaged us in pleasant conversation. Like the building, he looked like a vestige of the Old West with his Wilford Brimley-style mustache, dungarees and ten-gallon hat. Not able to resist, I asked him about the legend. He immediately launched into a long story about the building's history, peppering it with plenty of anecdotes about frontier justice and Indian attacks. What he didn't know was that had I set him up. My parents, who sat there and quietly listened to the entire thing, were veritable experts on the history of the West. My father had been an archaeologist and college professor for over thirty years; my mother was an amateur historian; and both had lived, traveled and studied extensively throughout the southwest. As soon as the manager left, they proceeded to rip apart his tale. It was awesome.

(In the end, I guess The Old Town Jail really wasn't a historical structure as it was torn down a few years later and replaced with a HomeTown Buffet.)

The memory of this dinner came back to me when I my mother was visiting for the holidays and watched over my shoulder as I played Red Dead Redemption on my Playstation 3. The hero was galloping through a landscape of saguaro cactuses and brittlebrush.

"Oh! He's in the Sonoran desert near Tucson!" she exclaimed.

A few seconds later the horse was ambling along a river's edge with the vermillion buttes of Monument Valley clearly visible on the opposite shore. I could almost sense my mother's discomfort. (If you are not familiar with these locations, nor have the extensive geographical skills of my parents, Tucson and Monument Valley are separated by over 400 miles.)

"That's not right," she muttered.

The horse whinnied and an armadillo scurried across its path. (Since this was Red Dead Redemption, naturally I shot and skinned the animal.)

"Wait a minute!" she cried. "Armadillos in Arizona?"

Now keeping in mind that no video game environment could be completely factual, this did make me wonder how important historical, geographical and cultural authenticity is to gamers. I mean, aside from my very academically-minded parents, does anyone care that Red Dead Redemption makes it look like Tucson and Monument Valley are located next to each other? As I began to think about it, I even wondered if video game designers might have some small degree of responsibility to ensure the historical authenticity of their work. Let's face it, Assassin's Creed might be about as close to the Holy Land as most American youth ever get. And Uncharted may be the only time that a teenager finds Sir Francis Drake relevant to his or her life. Could building in better detail help turn a piece of entertainment into an educational tool, at least to some small degree?

With this in mind, I decided to ask my visitors for their opinions. The poll on this subject has now been discontinued, but here are the results:

Do you play video games with historical themes, characters or events?

Sometimes: 40%

Often: 40%

Never: 20%

Prior to playing, how would you rate your knowledge about the historical themes in the game?

Huh? 46.67%

Somewhat knowledgable: 33.33%

Very knowledgable: 20%

How important is historical accuracy in a video game?

Very important: 20%

Somewhat important: 46.67%

I could care less: 33.33%

Would some kind of education content about history make these games better?

Maybe. It depends on how it's handled: 40%

Yes. If you can learn something while you learn so much the better! 33.33%

No. Education is for suckers: 26.67%

Multiple choice: Which of these historically-themed games do you play the most?